I posted this a few weeks ago in the Items & Synthesis forums and got a few good replies. But overall I think many people have not seen it. I believe it's a big issue so I'm going to re-post it in General Discussion. This is a copy & paste from my original post with some minor edits.

I'd like to suggest a complete overhaul to stats on HQ'd gear. Currently the only gear in the game that's really worth getting an HQ version of is weapons and tools. The problem is that the only stats that get a boost compared to their NQ counterparts are ATK/ACC/M-POT/M-ACC/CRIT% for weapons, Craft/M-Craft/Control/Gathering/Output/Scanning for tools and DEF/EVA/M-DEF for armor and jewelery. This makes a very large portion of HQ items effectively worthless, especially for DoL/DoH armor and jewelery which have absolutely no value whatsoever.

I'd like to see more than just those stats get a boost. This includes all parameters of stats and attributes. You don't have to boost every single stat on a single item just give us some more variety. With the way the system is now I find no real reason to buy HQ armor or jewelery except as a novelty. Crafters and gatherers don't want or need extra DEF so why even bother making their armor HQ-able? And I'm sure all the Goldsmiths in Eorzea agree, the current system is just giving them one big middle finger by making 90% of their synths useless.

I'm aware that attributes currently don't make much of a difference at all. However, I also understand that the whole system is being revamped, so in the future perhaps they will play a bigger part in how we equip our characters. As such, it would be a shame not to include attribute boosts on HQ items in the future. Things like HP/MP/STR/MND/DoH stats/DoL stats should be included in the formula for armor, why weren't they in the first place?

Last but not least, get rid of the star system. I'm all for hidden or latent effects on certain pieces of equipment, but for every single one? People want to know what they're buying and want to visually see the difference when they spend an extra sum of gil for an HQ. If you do in fact decide to redo the whole HQ system I don't see how the stars would work with it anyways. Show us the exact amount of stats that we're getting, both in the item's description and in our stat/attribute window. Leave the guesswork and number crunching for when we want to test how our stats and attributes affect our performance. (Although I would like a clearer explanation for DoH stats, but that's another story.)

In conclusion, I know and fully understand the extraordinary amount of work you are currently doing and for that I am truly grateful. I think you are doing a great job and I know these things take time. I don't expect this type of change to happen overnight, or even over the course of a few months. I wouldn't expect a change like this to even be discussed in your conference room(s) until you are nearly complete with the overhaul on game mechanics. Focus on the more important issues first, as you currently are. Just don't neglect this major flaw in the current system, a system that was supposedly designed to make crafting classes just as important as any other.

However, the sooner this is fixed, the better. As more gear is implemented into the game, the task of updating existing gear becomes larger and larger. Sometime before PS3 release seams reasonable to me.

Thank you for your time,
Meowy Wowie - Fabul